Seton Hall Prep baseball team wins five games during week to improve to 8-0

WEST ORANGE – The Seton Hall Prep varsity baseball team went 5-0 last week to raise its record to 8-0 on the season.

The Pirates defeated Belleville, 9-3, April 11, at George Zanfini Memorial Field at Belleville High School. SHP opened the scoring with two runs in the second on an RBI double by senior Nick DeNicola and sophomore John Zyska, who was a courtesy runner, scored on an error.

They increased their lead to 4-0 in the fourth when DeNicola hit a two-run home run to left-center field.

Belleville came back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut it to 4-3. The Pirates scored two in the fifth on senior Ryan Toohers’ sacrifice fly to left and senior John Savino’s RBI single to left.

Senior Joe Giovinco singled and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-3.  Senior Justin Miller hit an RBI double to right and later scored on a wild pitch for the final score.

SHP rallied to defeat Livingston, 4-3, April 13, at the Kelly Athletic Complex. Trailing 2-0 in the second inning, SHP scored a run when junior Francis Prior hit an opposite-field RBI single down the left-field line. Trailing 3-1 after three innings, the Pirates scored one run in the fourth inning when senior Brenden Weiss beat out an RBI infield single to cut the Livingston lead to 3-2. The Pirates tied it 3-3 when senior Patrick O’Hare walked and later scored on a wild pitch.

SHP scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning. Zyska led off with a walk and moved to second base on a sacrifice by Weiss. After a strikeout, O’Hare slammed a double to deep left-center to score Zyska. Junior right-hander Jermaine Vanheyningen, a West Orange resident, picked up the win in relief with three scoreless innings of one-hit ball with three strikeouts and one walk.

The Pirates defeated Mount Olive, 12-0, in six innings  April 14, in Flanders. Senior A.J. Cerbo and Toohers each went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and one RBI. O’Hare was 2-for-3 with two RBI; junior Mike Ukrainskyj was 1-for-3 with two RBI and junior Nico Mottesi was 1-for-1 with a double, sacrifice fly and three RBI. Junior right-hander Kevin Young pitched five innings, allowing three runs and one walk and striking out two, to earn the win. Junior right-hander C.J. Strlekar pitched the sixth inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.

The Pirates defeated Caldwell, 9-1, April 15, in West Caldwell. Senior Dwayne Marshall was 2-for-3 with three RBI, including a bases-loaded triple in the fourth inning. Zyska had an RBI single; DeNicola had an RBI groundout; and junior Kevin Gately had an RBI squeeze bunt. Junior right-hander Jamil Vanheyningen, Jermaine’s brother and a West Orange resident, allowed one run on three hits, striking out four and walking two in four innings to earn the win.

On Saturday, April 16, the Pirates hosted Old Bridge and won 2-1 in a real pitchers’ duel. In the first inning, Zyska led off with a walk, moved to second on a sacrifice by Weiss, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on an errant pick-off attempt.

The Pirates increased their lead to 2-0 in the third inning. Zyska singled to center and advanced to second on an infield bunt single by Weiss. Toohers’ sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third. O’Hare hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Zyska.

Toohers, a right-hander, pitched four scoreless innings of two-hit ball with three strikeouts and three walks to record the victory. Marshall retired eight straight batters in relief and was relieved by junior right-hander Christian Bascunan, who recorded the final out on a grounder to third base with the tying and go-ahead runs on second and third.

The following are upcoming SHP games

April 22, at Montclair, 4 p.m.

April 23, Monroe Twp., 11 a.m.

April 25, Bloomfield, 4 p.m.